It is common to assume that the pronunciation of words, and in particular the intonation, creates with the listener an understanding of the type of emotional attitude intended by the speaker. A significant part of non-verbal communication between people, and even among animals, is based upon the interpretation of intonation. In human communication, this interpretation is combined with the verbal content, to form a complete understanding.
Interpretation of intonation is used alongside with interpretation of body language and interpretation of content, as an emotional communication tool. This interpretation is intuitive and, to date, an accurate description and decoding has not been provided.
Indeed, various studies have been conducted to understand a speaker's emotional state, but those studies did not relate to the way specific words are pronounced nor were they able to attach a specific emotion to each and every tone.
Among the systems developed until now we can count the following: U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,034, presents a method of detecting psychological stress by evaluating manifestation of physiological change in the human voice; U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,188 compares models of speech with models in a data base, reaching conclusions from a comparison between the models; and other patents that identify situations of stress, characteristic of lying and even attempted suicide are U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,137 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,238.
WO 2006/059325 discloses a method and system indicating a condition of an individual by analysis on non-discernible sounds.
A methods and system for: a) indicating emotional attitudes by intonation analysis, related to the way specific words are pronounced or, b) attaching a specific emotion to each and every tone, thus meets a long felt need.